Walmart expands Manager Academy to train store leaders in empathy and culture

Walmart is betting that a strong store manager is made, not just promoted. The company said more than 2,000 store managers were expected to take part in Manager Academy in Bentonville, Arkansas, a week-long leadership program built to sharpen the people skills that store metrics alone do not teach.

The academy was designed to give managers a better grip on Walmart culture and values and to help them lead hundreds of associates more effectively. More than 600 managers had already completed the immersive version since the pilot launched, underscoring how quickly the program was moving from experiment to standard practice. Walmart tied the effort to a $1 billion investment in career-driven training and development through 2026.

The curriculum goes beyond operational execution. Walmart said the program focuses on leading with empathy, supporting associate well-being, engaging customers and communities, and embracing change. Managers also tour stores with the latest technology and spend more time thinking about associate growth, a reminder that daily leadership at Walmart is about more than labor forecasts, sales reports and shelf standards. It is about handling the people side of the job, from coaching underperformance to keeping morale steady when schedules shift and pressure rises.

A 360-degree feedback survey is part of the training, followed by a six-month mentorship with more experienced managers. That combination matters for assistant managers and department managers because it treats leadership as a skill that can be practiced and improved, not a title that arrives automatically with a promotion. For workers on the sales floor, that can shape whether feedback feels constructive, whether staffing friction turns into turnover, and whether a team stays intact long enough to develop.

Walmart said the five-day Manager Academy classes in Bentonville are worth up to nine hours of college credit, a sign the company wants frontline retail leadership to carry formal career value. The company also said by 2025 all store, club and supply chain managers would go through the training, turning the academy into a company-wide leadership baseline rather than a one-off pilot.

The push fits Walmart’s broader workforce pipeline. About 75% of its U.S. salaried store, club and supply-chain managers started in hourly roles, and the average promotion for an entry-level associate comes in about nine months. Walmart also expanded Walmart Academy globally in 2022 to help 2.1 million associates build skills and move ahead. In January 2024, the company raised average U.S. store-manager pay from $117,000 to $128,000 and added annual stock grants of up to $20,000 depending on store format, reinforcing the message that the company wants store leaders to be paid, trained and judged as full people managers.